Trinity College to change official name

Trinity College’s governing board has approved a re-branding of Ireland’s oldest university with a decision to change its name.

The city centre institution will now be referred to in official communications as “Trinity College, the University of Dublin”.

The re-branding is part of an ‘Identity Initiative’ launched by Provost Patrick Prendergast 12 months ago in a bid to simplify references to the university, eliminating variations such as “Trinity College Dublin,” “Trinity College,” “TCD” and others.

It would also disspel confusion with international students who wish to study at Trinity and construe “college” as being like secondary school or community college.

Prendergast said the aim of the initiative was to “create a shared visual identity and narrative for the entire university that allows us to tell a more cohesive and powerful story about what Trinity wishes to achieve in the future”.

Students and staff at the university have raised concerns over the re-branding process with the Fellows of Trinity College, the representative board for tenured academics. They have stressed the need to retain the university’s heritage.

The Fellows have been granted special dispensation to continue using TCD on research publications due to concern the changes would affect the international rankings of such texts.

Over 70 per cent of these use the name ‘Trinity College Dublin’, while other variations yield poor results.

The re-branding plans also include a standardised logo and will be put forward to staff and stakeholders before being remanded back to the board for final approval.